PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - Senior Neal Pitt (Fort Washington, Md.) and redshirt junior
Tim Burns (Franklinville, N.J.) led all scorers with 16 points apiece in the University of
Maryland Eastern Shore's first victory of the season over American, 65-58, Saturday
afternoon at the W.P. Hytche Athletic Center.
"This was a big win for us," said head coach Frankie Allen. "This was something we
really needed and there were times that we could've lost it, but we came through in the
end."
Pitt added in five rebounds, two blocks and three steals in the win over the Eagles while
Burns had four rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Junior Kevin White (Brooklyn, N.Y.) continues to have a tremendous season for the
Hawks as he had 13 points of his own, four rebounds and five assists. Freshman Sean
Berry (Irvington, N.J.) racked up seven points and seven rebounds in just nine minutes of
playing time.
The game started off slow, with UMES leading by a score of just 4-0 at 15:20 with two
free throws and a basket by Pitt. The Eagles recorded seven turnovers before making
their first basket off of a Riley Grafft layup at 14:59 to make it 4-2. The game was tied at
11 to go into the second media timeout of the game at 9:49.
The largest lead of the game for American was when they were up by four off of a Simon
McCormack layup at 2:31 to make the score 21-17. Burns then had four straight points
to tie it up at 21-21. At 1:16, Burns stole the ball from the Eagles' Daniel Munoz and
made another layup to put the Hawks up, 26-21.
The half ended in dramatic fashion when White banked in a half-court shot with 00:01 on
the clock to send UMES into the locker room up 32-25.
The Hawks got off to a fast start in the second half with rebounded tip-in for redshirt
sophomore Hillary Haley (Oxon Hill, Md.) at 19:48. UMES proceeded to grab their
largest lead of the game off of freshman James Cotton's (Pocomoke, Md.) steal and
layup at 18:52 to make the score 37-25. The Hawks didn't allow AU to score until 17:56
with a jumper by Munoz.
The Eagles started to get back within reach at 39-34 with a 3-pointer by Steve Luptak at
15:15. A layup by Stephen Lumpkins at 11:30 put AU down by two, but White quickly
responded with two points of his own to put the Hawks up 45-41.
After a 30-second timeout by Allen at 9:45, the Eagles tied the score and then took the
lead to go up 48-45 at 7:43. After another timeout by the Hawks, Freshman Freddy
Obame Obame (Libreville, Gabon) stopped the UMES' draught at 7:35 with a rebound
and layup.
The Hawks took the lead for good off of a rebounded layup and foul by Berry at 5:05.
Berry made the foul shot to make things 52-49.
Within the last two minutes of the game, UMES was fouled five times but was not able to
capitalize from the charity stripe as they went just 3-for-8. However, those were just
enough as the Hawks scored just one field goal in the same time frame. A layup by Berry
at 00:15 sealed the deal for UMES at 65-58.
With the win, the Hawks improve to 1-5 on the season while the Eagles fell to 0-7.
Lumpkins led AU in scoring with 15 points and nine rebounds in 29 minutes of play.
The Hawks continue their three-game home stand with a doubleheader with the women's
team against Delaware State on Saturday, Dec. 5. The women tip off at 2 p.m. with the
men following at 4 p.m.
